Abstract
Visual perception is a critical factor in mathematical performance. The current study investigated whether form-perception speed underlies the association between visual perception capability and mathematical performance. Visual form perception tasks having different perceptual loads were administered to 162 adults in Experiment 1 and 273 children in Experiment 2. Experiment 1 showed that adult’s visual perception capability correlated with mathematical performance, even after controlling for age, gender, nonverbal matrix reasoning, choice reaction time, and mental rotational ability. However, only the correlation modulated by processing speed—and only visual perceptions with lower perceptual loads— predicted the variance of mathematical performance for adults mathematical performance. The findings in children corresponded to those in adults. Thus, form-perception speed modulates the association between visual perception capability and mathematical performance.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This research was supported by four grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China (31700971, 31671151, 31600896, and 31521063), the 111 Project (BP0719032), and a grant from the Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education (27900-110631111) .
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Zhang, Y., Fang, S., Chen, Z. et al. Form-perception speed predicts mathematical performance in adults and children. Curr Psychol 42, 31783–31800 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04153-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04153-0